Prayer of Saint Ephrem

The Prayer of St. Ephrem (Greek: Εὐχή τοῦ Ὁσίου Ἐφραίμ, Euchē tou Hosiou Ephraim), is a prayer attributed to SaintEphrem the Syrian used with emphasis during the Great Lent. This prayer is considered to be the most succinct summation of the spirit of Great Lent and is hence the Lenten prayer 'par excellence', prayed during all Lenten weekday services, such as the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, and many more times in private. There are historically two variant versions of the prayer—the Greek and the Slavonic—with modern English translations taken either from the Greek, the Slavonic, or attempting to combine the two.[1]

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to condemn my brother. For blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.

This Greek version is the standard form of the prayer, to be found in the Greek Orthodox Church and all those churches that utilize Greek or Arabic in their services. Minor variations from this text have been found in very early manuscripts.

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to judge my brothers and sisters. For blessed art Thou unto the ages. Amen.

There are two intriguing differences between the Greek and Slavonic texts of the first line of the prayer.

First, regarding the spirit of sloth..., the Greek has μή μοι δῷς meaning give me not, but the Slavonic has ωтжεни ωт мεнε meaning take away from me. Next, where the Greek has 'περιέργια/periergia' meaning 'idle curiosity' or 'meddling.' the Slavonic has 'небрежεнїѧ/nebrezheniya' meaning 'faint-heartedness' or 'despondency,' which in Greek is 'ακηδία/akêdia,' the classic monastic sin. Whether these differences are attributable to a different original or a reflection of differing national temperaments is, as yet, unclear.

This version was superseded in Russia in 1656 by the liturgical reforms of PatriarchNikon, but remains in use among the Old Believers today.

This version is to be found in the Liturgikon (Sluzhebnik) or Priest's Service Book, published in Kiev in 1639 by St. Peter Mogila. Substantially it is similar to the earlier version, but with some of the case-endings updated, as by that time, the use of the dative case (животѹ моемѹ) to mark possession was considered distinctively archaic, and the use of the genitive case (живота моегω) felt to be more correct. It retains the distinctive differences that the earlier version has from the Greek, with none of the more drastic changes that may be found in the next version.

This version was once used throughout the Kievan metropolia, as well as the Orthodox churches of central Europe (Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, and so on), but later dropped out of use, and the next version adopted. It is currently only used (either in the original Slavonic or in vernacular translations by those churches that use the Ruthenian recension—the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Ruthenian Catholic Church, the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church, the Hungarian Greek Catholic Church, and the Slovak Greek Catholic Church.

Bows and prostrations

The prayer is accompanied by prostrations. The most common practice has one after each line of the prayer, a number of bows/prostrations either in silence or accompanied by short ejaculatory prayers then follows (the exact number of which varies between ethnic traditions), followed by one at the end of a repeat of the entire prayer, with a final prostration.

The current Russian Orthodox practice, such as in ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate, is to perform twelve bows between the repeats of the prayer, saying at each bow, 'Боже, ѡчисти мѧ грѣшнаго (грѣшнѹю if one is female)—O God, cleanse me a sinner.' When the prayer is prayed in the course of a church service, the priest alone says 'O God, cleanse me a sinner' as everyone makes bows. In the common usage of ROCOR, the last (twelfth time) he adds, "...и помилѹй мѧ—and have mercy on me." Though this last addition is not written in the service books, it does help all of those present to know that it was the last bow.

The tradition of the Old Believers is similar, but instead of twelve bows in silence, they have thirteen prostrations, each time reciting the Jesus Prayer or the following prayers:

The Ruthenian tradition, again, differs slightly, retaining some aspects closely related to Old Believer usage. The 1639 Liturgikon (Sluzhebnik) of St. Peter Mogila prescribes twelve waist-bows, repeating the following three lines to make twelve: